Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance that he himself has spun...

Thursday, September 1, 2011

European Blue Card - Update September 1, 2011

I think it's time that we took a look to see how the Blue Card implementation is progressing. Many thanks to arvind who left this link with some news about overall implementation. Here is another about the situation in Belgium. Both confirm what we already know - it's moving slowly but surely.

Belgium: They were a little late getting started - the law appears to have been voted on at the end of July. More details in this press release which says that Blue Cards will be available in Belgium to those workers who:

Slovakia: According to this site, Slovakia is accepting Blue Card applications. Their official government site has this page, Stay of Foreign Nationals in Slovakia, which outlines the procedure for requesting permission to reside. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything specific about the process for the Blue Card.

Austria: Thanks again to arvind for this great link to information about Austria's Red-White-Red Card (RWR Card). Scroll down to the bottom of the page for links to factsheets about this program.

That's all for now. Thank you all (especially arvind) for sharing links and asking such thoughtful questions. From the mail and comments I receive, it appears that the information we share here is useful and much appreciated by many people. I'll post another update soon and try to cover more countries. I suspect there is much much more good news to come in the months ahead.

21 comments:

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I see what you're saying: the pre-requisite for a Blue Card is having a job offer which makes it very similar to other programs.

Here is my understanding of what makes the Blue Card different. The major change (the "offer") is that prior to the Blue Card if you got a work permit to work in France and you wanted to go to Germany, you had to apply twice. A French work permit only granted you the right to work in France, not in any other EU country.

In theory (and we won't really know how well this works until Blue Card migrants actually try to use that right) once you have a Blue Card and you work for a certain time in the first country, you can then move to another country within the EU and work there with less paperwork, fewer administrative hassles and so on. The idea is that instead of being limited to one country, you would have access to the job markets of ALL participating EU countries after having satisfied certain conditions.

I'd be very interested in hearing what you think. Is this a good deal or not? As a highly-qualified potential migrant is this offer interesting enough to make you decide to go to Europe as opposed to the US, Australia or Canada?

What you say is really interesting because my new French residency card also has a new format complete with a chip. What does the German card look like?

I'm pretty sure the new German card is not a Blue Card. Depending on how it is implemented, it appears that the EU Blue Cards will be like existing cards but with a note on them that says "EU Blue Card." At least that is what they are saying will happen in France.

I'm going to investigate these new formats (thanks again for mentioning it). Is this something driven by the EU, by the desire of the member-states to have common immigration processes and databases or is this simply EU countries updating their tracking technologies? I'd like to know and I'll let you know if I find out anything interesting.

I have lived in France for like 5 years and I have always observed a gap between their establishment and industry....Are they gonna make sure while launching blue card scheme that their industry is well aware about all the details and advantages of recruiting a foreigner under blue card scheme. Moreover, when do you think its France gonna start taking applications for blue card.

Hi Zeeshan, thanks so much for reading and for your comment. Those are really good questions that I've been asking too.

From what I've been able to read about the history of the Blue Card, it appears that the push to create it came from industries lobbying the EU and countries that are worried about their demographics. France is doing alright in the latter - the birthrate is pretty high compared to other member states. So if the French voted for it then I conclude that French industry was for it. This site http://www.immigration-professionnelle.gouv.fr/ shows that the government is serious about helping French companies hire foreigners. I also noticed that a notice about the Blue Card was published recently on this site http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/N110.xhtml. So it appears to be moving, just not very quickly. There are a couple of plausible reasons why. Certainly the implementation of procedures is one, the fact that was passed in summer just before everyone went on vacation is another. But I think there is another reason that is even more important. France is in an election cycle right now. Judging from the reactions of my French (and other EU county) friends and colleagues, they were not aware of the Blue Card and when they hear the particulars, they don't like the idea. The French government may fear the reaction of French voters if it becomes widely known that this now exists and it could become another issue that the Far Right can grab and use against the current government since it concerns two hot issues: immigration and the EU.So I think that industries that were behind this are probably well-aware of it and will use it to recruit. For the time being, however, I think the French government has every interest in keeping it very quiet.

For France I think the list to look at is called "metiers en tension" and depending on where you are from (EU or non EU or countries with agreements with France) there are different lists. I would check out the Professional Immigration site of the OMI and see what they say.

Not sure that any country can or will waive the job offer qualifications. Right now in France they are kicking out foreign students who have just completed their diplomas, many of whom already have jobs. I think (and I could be wrong) that the job qualification will stand just about everywhere - it is the only way (and even that is no guarantee) that the general public will not express their displeasure at yet another avenue of immigration (however qualified) at the polls.

This is very much a labor of love - the Blue Card is a fascinating topic and I really enjoy searching the government websites for more information. I really hope that it has helped people to navigate the muddy waters that are current EU immigration policy.

And thanks also for the link. I'm travelling right now but when I get home next will I plan to work on an October update. Your link will get me started :-)

It's good to see lots of people becoming aware of blue card, when I started to gather details about this blue card (sometime in Jan) this "flophouse" helped me a bit in knowing what is it, a big thanks to Victoria.

Anyway I just received a mail from a consultant listing the countries that started accepted blue cards and they are as below.

Bachelor's Degree (Medium of instruction English only)5+ years of experienceAnnual income more than 5 lakhApplicant must pass health & character checks & have travel medical insurance.

Mandatory Requirement -

The EU Blue card requires a Job offer from the particular country where you wish to apply and the salary offered to you by the employer has to be 1.5 times more than the existing wages in that country for one to qualify for this programme.

Bachelor's Degree (Medium of instruction English only)5+ years of experienceAnnual income more than 5 lakhApplicant must pass health & character checks & have travel medical insurance.

Mandatory Requirement -

The EU Blue card requires a Job offer from the particular country where you wish to apply and the salary offered to you by the employer has to be 1.5 times more than the existing wages in that country for one to qualify for this programme.

Thanks so much for the additional information and my apologies for not being a bit faster to post your comment. I do have this blog set up so I can moderate comments before they are posted (keeps the advertising away) but sometimes I'm not as fast as I would like to read through and post them.

Yesterday was my birthday which was my reason for taking the day off. :-)